We have Nancy Rawles reading again for the millionth time and a bunch of other readings, too.

Doug Stanton, who is the author of Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan will reportedly backpedal on the word "victory" in his book's title today at Elliott Bay Book Company at noon. Then, in the evening, Elliott Bay hosts Tom Robbins, who hasn't written anything worthwhile in nearly thirty years. Robbins reads from his newest piece-of-shit book, B Is for Beer: A Children's Book for Grown-ups/A Grown-up Book for Children. Some folks still like Robbins, I guess. With his easygoing "cool" old-guy vibe, he's kind of become the Jimmy Buffett of the literary world. Except the literary world already has Jimmy Buffett.

University Book Store hosts two readings, also. Bill Fletcher is "a union insider" who is exploring the new global face of labor in Solidarity Divided: Crisis In Organized Labor & New Path Toward Social Justice. He reads at 1:30. Then, this evening, Simon Van Booy reads from his collection of short stories. Love Begins in Winter contains five stories about people in love. The love featured in the stories might be the creepy obsessive kind of love, or it might be the good kind of love. You pays your money and you takes your chances. Nearby, in Kane Hall, Charles King reads from The Ghost of Freedom, "a narrative and thematic history of the Caucasus mountains."

And at Jack Straw Productions, it's time for the Jack Straw Readings, featuring Rachel Dilworth, Alma Garcia, Laura Hirschfeld, and the lovely Kim-An Lieberman, who has appeared recently on the Seattle Poetry Chain. I wrote about the Jack Straw Readings in this week's online-only Constant Reader:

Local nonprofit arts organization Jack Straw Productions operates under the assumption that while not every author can be a Sedaris-level performer, they can be a little more comfortable—and entertaining—while reading their own work. The Jack Straw Writers Program annually selects local authors and introduces them to live-recorded audio by training them in microphone technique and vocal presentation. There are very few programs that do this; even expensive creative-writing MFA programs pretty much abandon the writers to their own devices when it comes to performance.

This is the reading of the night.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.